Proposed Cityhood Services

By Kaitlyn Ball, Cobb Collaborative Vote Your Voice Coordinator

Want to know what services each proposed city will offer?

When incorporating a municipality, the proposed city must offer at least three services to its residents. Those services include law enforcement, fire protection, planning and zoning, code enforcement, sanitation, limited municipal court, and parks & recreation.

Each proposed city will offer a different combination of services if voters approve the referendums in 2022. As a reminder, East Cobb, Lost Mountain, and Vinings will appear on the ballot on May 24th, and Mableton will appear on the ballot on November 8th. Under the proposition, all will offer city control over planning and zoning, code enforcement, parks & rec, and limited municipal court. In addition to this, Lost Mountain and Mableton will offer sanitation services, while East Cobb will offer police, fire, and E911 services. This means that Cobb County will no longer provide funding or resources for each of these services, becoming the city’s responsibility. The County will still provide water and stormwater services to all proposed cities.

With the new city-supported services, the city will be responsible for staffing, funding, and maintaining each service. If existing parks fall within city limits, the city has to purchase the park if they want local control. They can purchase all, none, or some of these existing parks from the county. Libraries, senior centers, and public schools will not be impacted by the cityhood movements.

To find out if your address falls within any of the four proposed city limits, check out the link at https://bit.ly/3jQPjPI for an interactive map of the 2022 proposed cities in Cobb.

For more information on the financial and social impacts of city-supported services, visit cobbcounty.org/cityhood.